Honduran Activists Need Our Support

When I first visited Honduras in February 2009, the government of Manuel Zelaya was carrying out programs to improve the massive inequalities in the country, and seeking a popular constitutional convention to re-found the Honduran state. This came to an end when Zelaya was ousted that year, the first Central American military coup since the end of the Cold War.

The efforts of his administration to include the poor were scrapped, and the country was declared “open for business.” Those in the country who resisted faced a systematic campaign of state repression and criminalization.

That same dynamic is now playing out again.

I recently traveled back to Honduras, where I witnessed the turmoil created by the contested Nov. 26 presidential elections. The country was in revolt. Tires burned in the streets in protest of the allegedly fraudulent re-election of Juan Orlando Hernández. I saw the military fire teargas at protesters as if it were nothing.

On January 19, well-known activist Edwin Espinal was arrested on charges of terrorism for his actions in the years following the 2009 coup d’état against the democratically elected Zelaya. A haze of secrecy hangs over the case. Following his arrest, Espinal was taken before a military tribunal where human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, were barred from entering. (For more information on Espinal’s case, see freeedwinespinallibertad.blogspot.com.)

While I traveled across Honduras in early February, I met a number of young activists facing similar charges of terrorism for simply protesting what they believe to be electoral fraud.

According to the Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras, the Honduran government has brought at least 179 criminal cases against activists. At least 30 people, and probably many more, have been killed by state security forces and paramilitaries since the beginning of protests.

The treatment of protesters fighting to protect the democratic process in Honduras contradicts the statements and official position of the U.S. Department of State. “The United States’ partnership with nations in the hemisphere is founded on shared values and democratic governance, but we cannot take it for granted,” said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a speech at the University of Texas at Austin on February 1. “Many still live under the oppression of tyranny.”

Yet the Trump administration continues to stand by the tyranny of Hernández, just as previous U.S. governments have backed other repressive regimes when it has served their geopolitical ambitions across the region and around the world.

On Feb. 7 in Tegucigalpa, I was able to interview former president Zelaya, now the leader of the opposition LIBRE party. He told me that part of the problem in Honduras is that the United States has recognized what many view as an illegitimate president. “The U.S. is committing an error in supporting the fraud and supporting the formation of a dictatorship,” he said.

He added, “The country out of control.”

The people of Honduras desperately need support from the international community to defend the democratic process in their country. If not, the repression could escalate. We should not allow that to happen.

Jeff Abbott is an independent journalist currently based in Guatemala.This column was written for the Progressive Media Project, affiliated with The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.